Making the most of wireless internet access

Realizing the potential of wireless broadband means more fiber, not less

Barely a week goes by without some headline-grabbing announcement about super fast mobile internet connectivity. A bevy of acronyms promise faster data speeds. And, on the horizon, wireless broadband technologies promise blazing fast connections without cable clutter.

Next Century Cities, a membership organization of more than 150 mayors and city leaders, is “solutions agnostic” — we help cities find the broadband solution that fits their needs and helps deliver next-generation broadband to more Americans. Our member communities have adopted a range of solutions: some create their own networks while others partner with private providers and some even have a mixture of both.

Many of our members have approached Next Century Cities with questions about how wireless technology fits in their broadband plans. Is a brave new wireless wonderland around the corner, they ask. Not exactly. Not yet anyway. Should cities ditch their wired broadband strategies on a dime and embrace all things wireless? In reality, deploying fiber is as important as ever.

Advanced wireless technologies should be welcomed, but for mobile connectivity to offer consumers real choice, policymakers must take steps to promote deployment.

First some background. Wireless telecom is an alphabet soup of jargon-y acronyms.

What’s LTE-Advanced? (LTE-A) A souped-up version of 4G LTE — what is likely powering your phone or tablet today when it isn’t on Wi-Fi. By utilizing “beamforming” — essentially weaving disparate strands of spectrum — a mobile carrier can transmit data much more quickly. Think of it as “4.5G.” T-Mobile and Verizon have both deployed LTE-Advanced in cities coast-to-coast. Sprint promises to follow suit. Like its 4G ilk, LTE-A offers a complement to traditional home broadband access, but these connections are more prone to congestion and may come with data caps that impose serious fees on consumers who use more than their monthly allotment.

Distributed Antenna Systems or DAS — Unlike some of the other technologies on the list, DAS is live and in the wild, right now. Unlike the large wireless towers that broadcast and receive cellular signals, DAS are smaller devices that extend the usability and speed of mobile networks. They come in different shapes and sizes, but can present policymakers with vexing questions.

5G and beyond — Whatever technology follows 4G, right? Well, sort of. No international standards body has ratified 5G, but several companies are racing ahead to experiment with new ultra fast wireless broadband. For its part the FCC has begun making more medium and high band spectrum available to tech firms to experiment with new connectivity technologies. Without an international standard ready to deem this or that technology 5G, several vendors promise very-high speed broadband over the airwaves, a few of which are already operational. In particular, startups like Starry hope to use millimeter wave (or “mmWave”) technology to transmit gigabit connectivity for low prices over high band spectrum. Starry has selected Boston as its first test market, and if things go well, it could expand to other markets.

Google Fiber’s recently acquired Webpass service also relies in part on high band spectrum to deliver very high speed connectivity from building roof to building roof, where it is distributed to units within the complex. That said, some of these technologies have not proven themselves outside of the lab.

Recent news coverage of 5G and Google Fiber’s supposed move away from fiber imply that that fiber is quickly becoming passé. That’s incorrect. While these developments are promising, one thing is certain: each of them depends on more fiber, not less. Wireless broadband is a bit of a misnomer — cell towers and access point have to plug into something. Many small cells, for instance, have a range of about 300 meters, meaning they must attach to a high-capacity line nearby.

And in Washington, D.C., infrastructure-building consistently rates as one of the few areas that might see bipartisan agreement in the next administration. Both presidential campaigns have indicated they would make our nation’s infrastructure a priority. So it is important that the next president work with Congress to get fiber policy right, no matter who that is. Otherwise, we’ll never close the digital divide, and bring the awesome power of the internet to Americans nationwide.